


Circumstances

by venort



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 14:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6859261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/venort/pseuds/venort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Millennium Falcon is pulled out of hyperspace by an unknown force, and Han finds himself faced with another Falcon, identical save for what appears to be a new radar dish...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circumstances

Han wasn't sure who this strange girl was, or why she was hugging him like an old friend. He was too busy staring at the huge, furry form behind her.

He wasn't sure what exactly had pulled the Falcon out of hyperspace, but as soon as he saw a second YT-1300 light freighter with some familiar modifications-- modifications he remembered making-- he stopped caring and, though he'd never let himself admit it, started hoping.

Realising the girl had let go, he stumbled forward. 'Chewie,' he said. 'I-- I haven't seen you since Sernpidal.'  
Chewie rumbled something in Shyrriwook, then rushed forward and wrapped Han in his vast arms.  
'Starkiller base?' Han asked, frowning as his head was buried in Chewie's dense, matted hair.  
'You--' the girl said. 'We saw you die. Your son--'  
'Anakin?'  
'Who?'  
'Jacen?'  
'I-- Ben. Ben Solo. Kylo Ren?'  
Han pulled away from Chewie and frowned at her. 'Who?'

The girl's eyes widened momentarily, and she began flapping her hands. 'You're not our Han. You're younger-- and this isn't your Chewbacca.'  
Chewie growled in agreement.  
'I-- guess not,' Han said, sitting down heavily beside the Falcon's-- his Falcon's-- Dejarik table. 'So what happened? Somethin' pulled me out of hyperspace. I figured it was the Vong, but...'  
'Vong?' The girl asked.  
'Yuuzhan Vong. Warriors from outside the galaxy? Ringin' any bells?'  
'We don't have those,' she said.  
'Well, keep an eye out. Fey'lya's government--'  
'Who?'

'You don't have him over there?' Han realised. 'Huh. Lucky you.'  
'So-- this is the Falcon,' the girl said. 'The Falcon.'  
'I'd say there's no other ship like it,' Han said, 'but that ain't as true as it once was. What happened to the radar dish?'  
'One of the last few owners replaced it,' the girl said, before rattling off a long list of buyers and sellers.  
'I lost the Falcon?' Han murmured. 'How? Where?'  
Chewie let off a long string of Shyrriwook.  
'Jakku?' Han asked, incredulous. 'Never heard of it. Why would I want to go there?  
'And hey, who are you? If Chewie took you on as a co-pilot, you've gotta be somebody.'  
'Rey,' she said. 'I'm-- Rey. Sorry, it's strange, meeting you again.' She looked to be on the verge of tears.

'So you knew me over there,' Han said. 'Okay. Fine. Just-- answer me this.  
'Is Leia okay?'  
Rey frowned at him. 'What do you...?'  
'Oh, come off it,' Han said. 'Something happened with my son, this Ben guy, Chewie has the Falcon, you're both actin' like you haven't seen me in years... I'm dead where you're from, aren't I?'

Rey swallowed. She nodded at him. 'Starkiller base. Your son...'  
'Starkiller? Lemme guess-- it blows up star systems.'  
Chewie grunted at him.  
'Yeah, we had one of those too, only we called it the Sun Crusher.'

They sat there in silence for several seconds, each no doubt remembering the impossible destruction they'd witnessed.

'So,' Han said uneasily, not yet sure where he was going with this sentence, 'where-- where were you headed?'  
'We finally found a map that leads to Luke Skywalker,' Rey said, her eyes wide, her hands flapping once more. 'I-- I'm bringing him this.' She reached into a satchel she wore and took out a familiar tool.  
'Huh,' Han murmured. 'Been a while since I saw this. You actually found Luke's old saber. Can you use it?'  
Rey was silent for a few seconds. 'Sort of. I-- I haven't really got the hang of it yet,' she admitted. 'But I'm getting better with the force.'  
'You're a jedi,' Han smiled. He was beginning to like her: she seemed to know the Falcon, and Chewie certainly trusted her.  
'Not yet. But-- soon. I hope.' She was unable to keep from smiling. Something in her eyes told her hope was an unfamiliar feeling to her.  
Chewie growled something, nodding to her.  
'Luke's going to train you? He got his jedi school up and running in your world too?'  
Chewie glanced at the ground and rumbled softly.  
'Oh,' Han murmured. 'I should've guessed. Your son okay?'  
Chewie grunted in surprise and confusion.  
'Lowbacca. He was force-sensitive too-- ended up pretty good buddies with mine and Leia's twins. Then there was all that business with Jacen...'  
Chewie shook his head.  
'What about Lumpy? My kids knew him better than me.'  
Chewie rumbled enthusiastically.  
'Life Day?' Rey asked, puzzled. Chewie turned to her and said something long-winded in Shyrriwook. 'Oh,' she said. 'We never really had that on Jakku. I can see why: with Unkar Plott, if you didn't scavenge then you didn't eat. I never really managed to stockpile more than a day or two of portions, and I kept having to use that on days when I couldn't find enough to eat properly.'

Han nodded grimly, but remained silent. 'So,' he said, 'you're headed to meet Luke...?'  
'Not yet,' Rey said. 'But-- soon. First we need fuel and supplies. The resistance went through most of their fuel reserves during the attack on Starkiller Base.'  
Han nodded thoughtfully. 'And the other reason?'  
Rey looked at him. 'How did you know?'  
'I've told an awful lot of half-truths in my time, kid,' he smiled. 'I know one when I hear one.'  
'I-- I want to try and wait until Finn wakes up,' she said. 'He used to be a stormtrooper with the First Order, but he-- he's one of us now. He's important to me, and he was there on Starkiller Base when...'

She fell silent, staring at the ground. Her grip tightened around the metal staff she carried.  
'Defector from the empire, huh?' Han asked. 'Reminds me a little of Mara Jade.'  
Chewie rumbled at him.  
'You don't have her either, huh? She used to be the Emperor's right hand woman. Then she became a smuggler, then she killed Luke, then she married him. The real one. She killed his clone.' After a moment, he added, 'it was complicated.'

'Can I-- see the Falcon? Your Falcon, I mean. I don't doubt that she's in good hands, I just-- I wanna see what else has changed.'  
Chewie turned to Rey and grunted.  
'I don't see why not,' she decided.

The first thing that Han noticed about the other Falcon was how dusty it was, as though it had barely been used in years. Given all the different hands it had passed through, he realised, it wasn't surprising that it had fallen into neglect. Still, for Rey to find it... she was a smart kid, to pick it out. She reminded him of himself, almost: a hangar full of pleasure yachts, but the beaten-up old freighter had been the one that caught his eye. Lando was still kicking himself for letting him take it.  
'Hey,' he said, 'what happened to your Lando?'  
Chewie's reply took the better part of five minutes.  
'Three of them?' Han asked. 'Whoa. That's a pretty serious venture, even by his standards. Did it work out?'  
Chewie grunted.  
'Yeah. Figures.'

He hesitated at the corner of the cargo bay, beside a box of spare parts. Something inside it caught his eye: a small square of plasteel with an image printed on it of an old man in a jacket, standing beside a wookie-- Chewie, he realised. Beside them was a younger man with dark hair and a tattered jacket, clearly trying to look tough and hide his excitement. He wasn't doing a good job of either.  
'Who's the old guy?' He asked. 'And the kid?'  
'The one on the left is Finn,' Rey said. 'The other one is--'  
Chewie finished her sentence.

Han gave them both a look. He regarded the image a little more carefully this time: the jacket wasn't familiar, but slowly he picked up on more and more things that were. The eyes, the shirt, the blaster he wore...

He looked up at the others in stunned silence. Slowly, he pointed first to the image, then to himself. 'Really? When did I get so-- old? Rey, how'd you even recognise me from this?'  
'Whenever I heard stories about you,' Rey said, 'they always said you were this-- hero. Young and handsome and as much as you claimed to be a smuggler, there was always more to you. I didn't recognise the you from my world at first-- but you've hardly aged. You look how I always expected you to look.' She was on the verge of tears.  
'I guess heroes never age,' he said. 'What happened to me?'

Chewie gave him a rundown of what they'd gone through over the years. If Rey's face was anything to go by, a lot of it was new to her as well.  
'I guess heroes never really age,' Han decided. 'I can see why the other me did, in that case. I left Leia? How could I, after all that had happened? Chewie, why did I go back to smuggling? You tried to get me to stay, right? Why didn't I listen to you?'  
Chewie was silent for a few moments before replying. Han listened carefully, then nodded, downcast. 'I guess-- I don't know. I might've done the same in his place, but I'm glad I never had to find out.  
'Jacen going over to the dark side was bad enough, but... we still had Jaina. That's what I always told myself, at least. Didn't really make what happened to him any easier.'

After a few moments of a silence nobody was entirely willing to break, something in the cockpit began beeping.  
'I should... probably get that,' Rey said. 'It might be important.'  
Han nodded. 'Sure. Might be some way out of wherever we are. Or it might be another Falcon, for all we know.'  
'If there's a chance we're leaving already,' Rey said, there's something I... something you should probably have.' She hurried off into the cockpit and came back with a small holoprojector, which she pressed into Han's hands. 'I feel like--' she said, and hesitated. Chewie rumbled something in Shyrriwook.

After a few moments, Han figured out how to turn it on. It showed an image, blue-tinted and flickering, of himself-- along with Luke (who had the beginning of a beard hazed across his chin), Leia and Chewie. In Leia's arms was a child, little more than a baby.  
'Ben?' Han asked.  
Rey nodded. 'Han-- our Han-- kept it in the cockpit. But with him... I feel like you should have it.'  
Han nodded. 'I... thanks. Hold on, I've something in the other Falcon. Kept it for sentimental reasons, but... Chewie, you've more claim to it than me.'

It felt strange, being back in his own Falcon after seeing the other one. Whatever the other one had picked up on its sensors, his had too: it didn't appear to be a YT-1300, but its IFF transponder was using an alias Han had made use of in the past.

He found what he was looking for in the cockpit, and then returned.  
'Whatever's out there, my Falcon sees it too. IFF transponder proclaims it to be--'  
Chewie grunted.  
'Yeah, exactly. We used that one where you're from, too?'  
Chewie nodded; Rey seemed to be struggling to conceal her awe.  
'You have these over there?' Han asked, handing Chewie a holocube. It held an image of their families: himself, Leia and their three kids standing beside Chewie, Malla and their kids, along with Chewie's father Itchy.  
'I've seen it plenty enough times,' Han said. 'Feels only right that you get a look at what could've been, too.'

Without warning, Chewie pulled him into a hug that threatened to crack his ribs, only pulling away when the ship jolted sideways. Someone else had docked with them.  
'Any idea who's out there?' Han asked.  
'No,' Rey said. 'It looks like another YT-1300, but it's a little off. Sort of... blocky.'  
Han frowned at her. 'That's not what I saw.'

Right on cue, the ship jolted again, although more distantly this time: something had docked with Han's Falcon, too.  
'Seems like we've got company,' he said.

They waited as footsteps echoed softly through the ship's interior: after a few moments, something that could pass for Han in a dark room stepped into view. It was blocky, and seemed to be made entirely of some strange material. As it saw the other Han, it stumbled back in alarm, before frantically gesturing at them both.  
'You're... another Han?' Rey asked, incredulous.  
It nodded.  
Chewie grunted at it in Shyrriwook; Rey snorted with laughter. 'I see what you mean.'  
'Hey!' Han snapped, turning on them. 'My face isn't that smug!'

'I wouldn't know,' another voice said from the cockpit's entrance. 'I see the similarity.'

Han stared wide-eyed at the creature that stood there. It was a foot or two taller than him and green-skinned. It looked almost amphibious.  
'Captain Han Solo,' it said, leaning against the doorframe. The silent, blocky Han jumped back in alarm, its hair rising a few inches from the top of its head before falling back into place and landing crooked. 'And you all are?'  
'Wait, wait, wait,' Han said. 'Okay, this thing--' he gestured to the strange human-ish thing standing silently beside him-- 'This thing, I can kinda see as being me, but you? You're not even human!'  
'No kidding,' the amphibious Han grunted. 'You don't exactly look like a Ureallian, so you can't exactly be me either.'

Before their conversation could continue any further, several more ships appeared-- Han could hazard a guess as to what exactly they were, and who-- or approximately who, at any rate-- was on them.

He had a bad feeling about this. It was going to be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending, but I couldn't resist including the version of Han from The Star Wars, a comic by Dark Horse adapting the original draft of ANH. And lego Han, of course.


End file.
